The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-03-26
T II Il
LIGHTS AND SHADES OF FOREIGN
NEWS.

Placed as this country is, outside the
Geographic circle of the worlds in
telligence, news is received by our peo-
pie in bulk and not in daily instalments
which make it's mental and moral as
sanitation easy. Honolulu newspapers
do their best to present the more inn
portant items to their readers, but the
lights and shades of the worlds news are
not reflected sufficiently, although these
are the real charm of current intelli-
gence. A dry recital of facts is not
enough. When any striking event hap
pens one wants to know something
about the actors in the moving drama, OF
their motives, and the probable bearing
of a stated occurrence upon the forces OF
society at large. These side lights are
often wanting in the summaries OF news
which the papers of this Kingdom
are restricted to publishing, but they
are often the essence OF the news itself.
For example, a general knowledge OF the
habits and character of the men engaged
in dynamite outrages in various Ameri-
can cities Of late is sufficient to allay
popular apprehension, and convince in
telligent men that society has nothing to
fear from handful of criminal lunatics.
And SO OF other occurrences about
which scares and excitement OF various
degrees of intensity have been gotten up
by the sensational press.
Coming to the higher field OF politics,
a knowledge of the leading actors and
surrounding conditions is very essential
to an intelligent understanding of their
policy and aims. In the case of Ger
many this is comparatively easy. Every
one understands that the policy of the
Germanic Empire is moulded and
directed by the great Prussian trium-
virate, Emperor William, Bismarck and
Won Moltke. They have impressed their
character upon the entire Germanic
race, and have so embued Germans with
their sentiments and policy that these
are now a fixed and determined quantity
which must be taken into account by
In like manner Russian methods in
Bulgaria and in Central Asia are intelli
gible enough to those who know the
character of the agents employed by the
Car. They are all employed to work
out, each in his own characteristic way,
the central idea of extending the suprem-
acy of Russia to the Mediterranean on
the one side and the Ganges on the
other, without counting the vast stretches
of arid sand and frozen steppes on the
more northerly line between the Volga
and Behring Sea. The key to the pat
riotic resistance and intelligent forbear-
ance of the Bulgarian Regency is fur
nished by the London "Times,' whose
correspondent supplied most interest
1ns personal sketch of the Regents and
of their adherents i'll the Sobranje.
Austrian conservative vacillation is
likewise understandable by those who
have given the policy of that composite
empire some study since the Congress OF
Vienna in 1916. Napoleon was then in
exile. France was broken and dispirited,
and the old regime had been restored.
Metternich, aided by Castlereagh, dis
regarding the awakened impulse of race
sovereignty, carved out States in Europe
to suit themselves, thus furnishing the
pretext for that protest in arms of
down-trodden peoples in 1848 against the
centralizing methods Of. the Vienna sys-
tem-an armed demonstration that rem
dered possible the success, in later years,
of the policy of national regeneration and
unity in the case of Germany and Italy
respectively, and which is yet destined
TO make still greater changes in the map
of Europe. Since the day that Austria
invoked the aid of Car Nicholas to save
Vienna from the Hungarian armies, it
has gone steadily backward, losing in
fuence in the councils of Europe, and
having its military power utterly broken
IN seven weeks campaign against
Prussia, although it was backed by sew
eraJ OF the German States 1t is now
dual government, the controlling influ-
ences being somewhat antagonistic
Buda-Pesth is not always in accord with
Vienna. Hungarian statesmen distrust